Vale: Windsor Davies

UK character actor Windsor Davies, best known for It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, has died aged 88.

He died peacefully on Thursday, with his daughter saying her parents left a large family “who will all remember them with love, laughter and gratitude”.

Davies played Battery Sergeant Major “Shut Up” Williams on It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, which ran for 56 episodes between 1974 and 1981.

Co-star Melvyn Hayes, who played Gunner/Bombardier Gloria Beaumont, said: “I considered him my best friend, even though we hadn’t been in contact for many years.

“To work with him was a pleasure, a sheer delight because he was so generous in his work.

“You couldn’t buy him a drink because you’d go into a public house and they’d say ‘Windsor has put some money behind the counter for you’.

“He was nothing like the character he played – he was a charming, quietly-spoken, gentle human being.”

Davies also starred alongside Donald Sinden as two rival antique dealers in the sitcom Never The Twain, which ran for more than 60 episodes.

Davies retired from acting in his 70s to live in the south of France with his wife of 62 years.

Source: BBC